noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   An acute, highly infectious often fatal disease caused by Variola virus of the family Poxviridae. It was completely eradicated in the 1970s, but still exists in laboratories. Those who survived were left with pockmarks. uncountable, usually

   "The Europeans brought new diseases such as smallpox, measles, dysentery, influenza, syphilis and leprosy."

2. 2
   a highly contagious viral disease characterized by fever and weakness and skin eruption with pustules that form scabs that slough off leaving scars wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

variolavariolaacute articular rheumatismafrican lethargyaguealkali disease

Example

More examples

"Everybody is immune to smallpox nowadays."

Etymology

From small + pox, in contrast to greatpox (“syphilis”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.